MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) - An oceanfront home left hovering above the New Jersey shore as a reminder of Superstorm Sandy’s destructive power has been torn down nearly five years after the hurricane washed away its foundation.
The Mantoloking home had rested more than 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, on large pilings left behind as the sand underneath it was swept away in the Oct. 22, 2012 storm.
The 90-year-old home was known to locals as the Hepburn House because actress Katharine Hepburn is said to have stayed there with the home’s previous owners.
The house was the last severely storm-damaged home still standing in Mantoloking before it was demolished Thursday, NJ.com reports (https://bit.ly/2tWLU5I ). It was also one of the first things people would see as they drove south through the town, Mantoloking Council President Laurence White said.
“They’d see for five years this wreckage, and people began to get antsy about it,” he said. “It was unfortunate. It wasn’t anybody’s fault.”
The property’s owners had left the home resting on its skeletal supports as they fought with their insurance company.
Mayor George Nebel said it’s unclear why they finally tore it down, but he was glad to see it go.
“It became an eyesore,” he said.
Mantoloking was particularly hard-hit by Sandy and split in two as the storm carved a new inlet across the barrier island.
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